Evolution program for layout geometry of rectilinear looped networks

This paper presents a new algorithm for the design of layout geometry of looped water distribution networks based on rectilinear grids. The algorithm is an evolution program based on genetic algorithms. It incorporates new methods for generating the initial population and performing the operations of crossover and mutation. The new methods overcome the problem of generating infeasible solutions that result when the commonly used genetic algorithm methods operate on solutions using the chosen coding scheme. This paper includes the results of tests that measure the effectiveness and computational effort of the new methods and a demonstration of the algorithm through application to an example problem.